CIICPD 2023

FOREWORD Working with human capital in the 21st century requires new approaches. Employers, HR departments and educators need to reconceptualise how to train future employees, develop their key competences, foster critical thinking and the ability to adapt to different situations, manage diversity while counteracting prejudices, cultivate mutual collaboration, and hone intercultural communication skills. Tertiary education offers, to a certain extent, the theoretical underpinnings that the corporate world and other organisations need to navigate the challenges of a massively global economy in a way that ensures practical, attainable outcomes. With an estimated 3.5 billion individuals comprising the global workforce by 2030, we can no longer assume that people, at least not most people, will work in one place as part of one local culture, hence the focused and deliberate preparation of employees for cross-border employment. A global employee operates in a complex framework that includes a national culture even if they work in a global environment. Another dimension is the ability of the employee to communicate in the global language of the organisation. Statistics indicate that today about 70% of multinational organisations operate in English. However, other foreign languages are intensively used for everyday communication. We work with and meet people of different backgrounds, nationalities, religions and cultures in both our personal and professional lives, to indicate other dimensions the global worker faces. As a consequence, the global workplace is diverse and culturally rich, presenting a myriad of interactions that may diverge from a global employee ’ s expectations. In addition, the global employee needs a proper grounding in corporate culture where such a grounding extends beyond mere recognition to deeper comprehension. In part, a global employee requires a ‘toolkit’ that prepares them to effectively and proactively handle the diverse situations and practices that make up the fabric of today’s globalised workplace. As important as it is for them to be able to understand the source of a particular situation, be it a misunderstanding, divergent approach or genuine conflict, today’s employee needs to know how to address and in certain circumstance ameliorate them. A mindset global in outlook while locally and concretely focused opens the way for best practices. An attitude respectful of and actively nurturing diversity may include, though is not limited to, searching for common traits, understanding and respecting different approaches and behaviour, fostering critical thinking, task management and communication, which are prerequisites for job and life satisfaction. The acquired knowledge and skills can then facilitate conflict resolution, the handling of unpleasant situations and, most importantly, active and mutually beneficial engagement with a new culture. This book presents the findings from five partner tertiary education institutions in Europe that cooperated in the Critical Incidents in Intercultural Communication and Promoting Diversity (CIICPD) project. As the project’s name attests, the research and outputs within the project examined how critical incidents inspired educational solutions to the challenges a globalised workforce may experience as part of social and professional communication.

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